Saturday, September 27, 2014

Because, clearly, if you listen to the water heads, big muddy division, and the new dumb, the huge surge in unionism (and welfare queens buying caddies, and bike lanes, and universal healthcare, and public schools) are the main cause for the following:

Sheesh.

______Upshot: When you hear a screamer, club member and/or a Snooklandian bleating on about how giving people a fair shake and a fair wage is just too old fashioned to work, feel free to ask..."And just what the heckfire-in-a-hand-up-basket is so bad about 'old-fashioned' anyway?"Graphical Source: Pavlina Tcherneva of Bard College via Kevin Drum at MoJo....Tip O' The Toque to Mr. Electrico.

Essentially, I really and truly noticed that I could feel my pre-internet brain coming back to life.

Heckfire.

By Thursday I had even finished the Paul Auster book I bought back on our summer holidays when littler e. and I spent a luxurious hour or so rattling around in our favourite second-hand Berkeley bookstore while Bigger E. did her busking thing across the street in front of our old grocery store.

But...

None of that meant that I could escape the caterwauling of the head Snooklandian entirely.

First it was a snippet on the radio of her almost gleefully (and politically expedient) announcing a desire to lock all the dungeon doors and throw away all of the keys on all of those terrible, evil bad people out there. This, of course, was executed in the wake of a terrible tragedy and it was clearly designed to attract the media herds (including national ones) in droves.

And then, yesterday, I heard her poo-pooing of the death of another herd of Sparkle Ponies when Petronas started making noises about the pulling out of the great LNG fantasy.

In fact, the listens outpace the page views around here by about two-to-one.

And no, I'm not making that up.

Anyway...

Our oldest kid is going to school back at home now.

And so she does her pro-thing mostly on downtown Lotusland's streets these days.

Sometimes I even play with her. And while I'm pretty sure my presence cuts into her earnings, I have passed the halfway point toward my new/old telecaster that I have my eye on.

But, more often these days, what with this endless summer that just may end on Monday and all, our oldest kid now goes out with the youngest kid so they can do their two things together.

It's a real honest-to-goddess 'Sister Act', with Bigger E doing the singing and strumming while littler e. puts down her hunk of TConnorsian plywood and makes like the Ms. Bojangles that she has become.

And I'm telling you, it's truly amazing with kids.

I mean, even when they are so close they can't help but to move away as they grow up and start doing their own thing.

Which, of course, is pretty much as it should be.

But still, I'm pretty sure that if you really try you can always be with them, in spirit at least, even when you are not right there in the thick of things.

For all kinds of reasons, that include way more than just the singing.

'Calling Cards' is a short little story song from her last album that could be about just about anything.

It turns out, however, that Ms. Case wrote the song about something very specific.

Specifically, it's a song about how she always keeps all her various and assorted sundry bandmates and musical collaborators in her heart no matter where she is and what she is doing.

Sound like something I was talking about up above?

Here's my version, sharped the way she does it and everything (which was a big stretch for me), but what the heckfire...

______And I'm telling you....If I hear one more braindead report, question or comment about how there is a big rift among teachers after an 86-14 ratification vote...Well...I'm going to start screaming Proclaimers songs at the top of my lungs...Or some such thing.And, yes, that is a reference to the Scottish 55-45 thing...

Sunday, September 21, 2014

If the Duff-Master Flash gets his way and has an early trial, will it force Mr. Harper to resign as Scott Reid, writing for Postmedia, suggested the other day?

Personally...

I think not.

Me, I'm more inclined to go along with Harvey O who thinks that the Duffy trial, along with the buoyant poll numbers for Trudeau II and a coming budget surplus built from a zillion tiny strips of flesh ripped from the backs of the middle class (which is my opinion not Mr. Oberfeld's, although he does acknowledge the strip mining of the UI gold deposits).

So.

How will we know if the early call is coming.

Well, if the smear campaign directed at Mr. Trudeau cranks up in earnest before Halloween rather than early in the New Year I reckon that will be a sign to start taking early odds and placing your bets.

________And, as for driving down the confirmed anti-CPS vote that is sure to come also?....Do not, for one second, ever forget that the Robo/Real-Call shenanigans did NOT begin in 2011....Thought of that on Friday as we dropped folks off at the Victoria Airport, and had to go through that post-Saanich Robocall Ground Zero deflector spin highway/multiple traffic circle exchange on the way back from a Memorial for C's Mom who passed away after a long and feisty (to say the least) life earlier this summer...She will be much missed by many...And, ya, I do refuse to call it EI...Why?...Because it's insurance for the unemployed that we all pay into, that's why.

A group of teachers who bought tickets to B.C. Liberal fundraiser say they were rejected from attending after concerns about “security,” and that they were unwanted because the social event was not about politics...

{snip}

...Some teachers decided to fundraise enough to buy a table so they could meet face-to-face with Bing, the Liberal MLA for and his caucus colleagues, Scott Susin told The Huffington Post B.C. in an email.

“We had no intention of being militant or crazy, or anything like that. That was part of our strategy also, to debunk that myth about teachers, and at the end of the day, engage in meaningful dialogue,” said Susin, a teacher from Mission.

Melanie Harris, another teacher who had planned to attend Bing's event, said, “Perhaps if we left the politics behind we could see each other as people and find some common ground.”

According to Justine Hunter, writing today in the Globe, it would appear that the labour strife that paralyzed this Province for months and caused the parents and guardians of half a million kids to scramble around like chickens with their heads cut-off for the last three weeks was ended in one weekend because our fine Premier stumbled into a chance encounter thousands of miles away that led to drinks at the bar followed by a secret meeting at an Airport hotel.

This after everyone concerned, including the union leadership, had been pleading for the Premier to do something for weeks to help deal with the paralysis that was caused, in large part by her own government's actions (and inactions, not to mention propaganda and smear campaigns).

He also was the first person to start me on the path to learning French badly as occurred back then in British Columbia secondary curricula (at least as I remember it - little conversation, all grammar).

But somehow Mr. O. made an impression on me because, when I was struggling with a problem that seemed monumental at the time (i.e. quitting rugby so I could play basketball - you'd have to know my family), he sat me down in his empty classroom and explained that if I wanted to play a dumb game with hoops (he, like my Dad, was a rugby player) that was fine by everybody, most importantly, me.

And he was right - when I told my Dad it was fine by him to.

I'm telling you....The stuff that goes on in a teenager's head.

One other thing....After we were done with the sports talk, Mr. O asked me what I really wanted to do with my life.

I remember not having a clue.

At least not then.

But I do remember thinking about it a little.

_______

Good luck with your voting today teachers, no matter which way it goes!

So much so, that after an initial flurry of sports biographies and Hardy Boys and all that, I'd read a whole lot of Vonnegut by the time the summer I started staying up all night to read, by flashlight, in a pup tent, at the age of 11.

Part of that was my Dad's fault.

But looking back I can see clearly that it all started in grade 4 with Ms. W. who got us to read chunks of stuff and then tell the class about it.

I really loved that...Reading stuff and then telling people about it.

So I guess you all can blame Mr. W. for what I do around here.

OK?

_______

Good luck with your voting today teachers, no matter which way it goes!

After 'Quick Wins' broke BEFORE the last general election, Ms. Clark had her man John Dyble investigate the other men and women in her own office (i.e. the Office Of The Premier Of British Columbia) regarding the so-called 'hatching' of plans to do BC Liberal Party work inside both that office and the whole of the government of British Columbia.

"...Following the December 1, 2011 meeting (where the scheme was hatched by 11 people made up of 6 government employees, 4 BC Liberal Caucus employees and 1 BC Liberal Party employee), Mike Lee took the notes away and prepered on his work computer a first draft of the spreadsheet capturing the ideas and activites that were discussed in the meeting. The IT security investigation shows that the document was shared with Dave Ritchie, Executive Assistant to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism, and then Primrose Carson, the Executive Director of the BC LIberal Caucus. A draft of this spreadsheet is part of the materials released by the Official Opposition during the week of Februrary 25, 2013..."

Please note that was late 2011.

Please note that the by-election that led to the recent charges in the wake of Quick Wins took place in 2012.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The following was posted up on the White Spot book of faces page not before the tentative deal was struck:

A message from White Spot

For more than 85 years, White Spot has valued and served this province’s thousands of teachers and generations of students. We have also, for more than 85 years, willingly dedicated ourselves to support numerous worthy charities – fund-raising and pitching in to improve the lives of children and their parents, in the communities where we ourselves live, and work.

For this reason, we sincerely hope the difficult issues that are impacting so many of our valued guests across British Columbia are resolved quickly and fairly. Many of you have indicated to us that you have a strong commitment to the well-being of this province’s children – a commitment which White Spot shares.

To correct any misunderstanding, we want our valued guests to know that White Spot has not had – and will not have – any involvement in the Coalition of BC Business’s application for intervener status in the upcoming appeal involving the BC Teachers Federation and the provincial government. White Spot is not a member of the Coalition of BC Business – although we, like the majority of chain and independent restaurants in B.C. – are a member of Restaurants Canada (formerly the Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association), which is a Coalition member....

****

I reckon that there at least a few things to consider from this, including...

Firstly....While this is a good first step, neither White Spot nor the Oak Bay Beach Hotel (who have made a similar statement according to BIV's Janet Steffenhagen) seems to have separated themselves from the Association that is sticking it's nose into the court case.

Secondly.....Don't forget, the case has not yet been heard, so the pressure can still be applied to all various and sundry establishments if the citizenry feels that is the right approach to take.

Thirdly....Could you imagine the caterwaul that would have been emitted by the proMedia 'round here if there had been even the slightest evidence in, say, the teachers' federation before the tentative deal was struck...So on this 'Intervenor' association/federation thing, how come so little has shown up in the proMedia regarding its demonstrable cracks?

Just wanted to send a quick thank you! Thank you so much for creating the conditions that injected new life into our democracy when your unethical actions galvanized citizens out of apathy. Many citizens have reacted as I imagine a spouse would when they discover that their partner has been cheating. They are enraged now that the scales of media obfuscation have been removed from their eyes and they have discovered what lies behind your smile...

****

Look.

This is one time when Ms. Clark really should just stop saying 'anything', particularly about historical agreements and great days and all of that, for a few days at least.

Because if she is not careful she really could inflame a whole lot of teachers who are having a hard time with the tentative deal which many feel is not what they fought for on either front.

_______And, in my opinion the teacher at the top is right...And, taking things one step further, it is also my opinion that the union has done all that it can to hold the line...And, so...If we want to move that line in the right direction it is we the citizenry who have to do our jobs now...At the ballot box.

But now, Ian Young, one of the few journalists left in Lotusland that actually digs for a living (and whose stuff is published thousands of kilometres away) has a little bit more:

....Members of the British Columbia Parents’ Federation (BCPF), some wearing surgical masks, unfurled a large vinyl banner carrying their group’s name in English and Chinese as they attempted to march on a larger rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in support of the industrial action on Sunday...

{snip}

...Among the BCPF protesters were some of the same people who vocally opposed the Vancouver School Board’s adoption of a new policy on transgender students in May. They included Charter Lau, a prominent Hong Kong immigrant and social conservative who has previously sought election to the Burnaby School Board...

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

..."When I first met Christy Clark, it was working on branding her Vancouver mayoral campaign. Although she didn't win, I knew one day that she would achieve something greater," Pickett said. "The sparkle in her eye and the way she presented herself when she entered a room was truly mesmerizing."...

Such a wonderful reason to do all you can to make a person the Premier of a province, eh?

Oh.

In case you are wondering who said that....

It came from the very fine, finest of the fine person who has been running that Snooklandian bought-and-paid-for social media (and more!) anti-teacher campaign lo these many weeks.

Monday, September 15, 2014

The fact that so little real news leaked out of Teacher/Gov't talks over the weekend (i.e. the fact that Denike and Woo showed up, out of the blue, for no good reason at all was not real news) suggests that something is happening.

As things drag on and the financial squeeze starts to tighten on individual teachers, one can only wonder if it's starting to look the ol' Bailey Brothers Building and Loan around the Emergency Fund offices of the BCTF these days.

And, more specifically, I'm talking about that part where there is a run on the bank.

It's the scene that ends when George manages to calm everyone down with his Honeymoon money and then, finally, asks Miss Davis how much she needs. After initially hesitating, she manages to say...'Could I have $17.50?"

We had an interesting (crowd source-backed) time around here yesterday figuring out where the website of a very amateurish group that attempted to disrupt the public education rally in downtown Lotusland yesterday came from.

This spilled over to the Twittmachine, where things went kinda/sorta like....This.

But none of that matters to any and all digital influencers as long as it gets proMedia play without any direct trackback to the Federation as happened on Global TeeVee this evening, right (that bit can be reached through the last link, above)?

Updated 4:50pm Sunday Sept 14/14...What purports to be the 'BC Parents' Federation website now has a slide show (apparently of the "BC Parents' Alliance", note different name, apparently at a different rally on Sept 07/14)...They also say that they have '30' members...Link is....Here.

Under the BC School Act, students' entitlement to education is a right. Today, this right has been blatantly violated. Because of the teachers’ strike, more than 500,000 students have been locked out of school causing great disruption to public schools. Not only has the strike impacted students and parents in BC significantly, it has also incurred great financial loss to over 13, 000 international students.

We, parents of British Columbia, urge BC Teachers' Federation to put students first and end the strike immediately. We request that BCTF allow students and teachers return to school while engaging in negotiation or mediation with the government. Don’t let the teachers who want to teach have no one to teach! Don’t let the students who are eager to learn have no school to go to!

We respect the teachers’ reasonable requests to the government. However, we ask that BCTF stop using students as pawns or its bargaining chips. We believe that any negotiated contract with the government should be settled without preventing the students from receiving education NOW or in the future.

Updated 4:50pm Sunday Sept 14/14...What purports to be the 'BC Parents' Federation website now has a slide show (apparently of the "BC Parents' Alliance", note different name, apparently at a different rally on Sept 07/14)...They also say that they have '30' members...Link is....Here.

__________

There was a little bit of a disturbance at the public education rally earlier today in downtown Lotusland.

And what he found is not pretty for the vainglorious folks doing the wizard work over at VV:

....4194 ('new') followers in....Yep. Permanently at (the same) 36 (common followers for most accounts). What’s perplexing is how blatant the fakeness of these followers is. There are so many duplicate pictures that some have been used 10 or 15 times by this point. And there is not a real person to be found. If you’re going to add 13,000 fake followers (not that I’m suggesting such a thing), you think you would do so in intervals, so there would be some variation between real people and fakes...

Can't imagine that, say, Andrea Reimer approves.

________It's actually quite fascinating how Mr. McIlroy did the spadework...And it's a good read, with all kinds of digressions, snark, and deep background too boot...The kid's good...Too bad he's jumped from linear type to the TeeVee in real life.

But 'Pay-To-Pay' billing wherein the same fine folks force their customers to pay extra for receiving a bill to pay their bills is, in the view of many, in the words of everybody's worst of all worst villians...

...(Y)ou may be surprised to hear that there are similarities between politics and rock and roll. For both, when you mount a project, the first thing you need is a good name. We asked one of our volunteers, Wyatt Shorter, who at the time was a high school student, if he had any ideas that would best describe this ripoff. “How about pay to pay,” he suggested, “because you have to pay a fee to pay your bill.” That was it!

With the help of another remarkable young Portuguese-speaking volunteer, Sara Marques, we met with immigrant seniors' groups in the area who wanted action. Aided by years of solid reporting on the issue, primarily by the Star, consumer and seniors advocates gave their support, and within days of its posting thousands had signed our petition online.

Still the government sat on its hands, claiming that a volunteer code of conduct was enough to protect Canadians from unfair billing practices. But as the pressure mounted, with the petition soon surpassing 10,000 signatures from people across the country, a shift began to take hold. The CRTC, Canada’s telecom and broadcast regulator, was initially dismissive but later sent a letter asking Bell to stop charging the fee to seniors. Other companies began considering exemptions.

However these were ineffectual measures and the government signalled in its Speech from the Throne last October that a ban was on the way. I laughed out loud in the lobby of the House of Commons when I heard the Governor General say the words “pay to pay,” doubtless the Queen's representative in Canada had no idea he was using a phrase coined by a high school student in Davenport...

Don't look now, but the Fraser Institute, at least according one of its big bosses, no longer has any ideological bias which, we can only assume, explains why it may (or may not) have been targeted in the latest round of punitive CRA audits.

...Niels Veldhuis, president of the Fraser Institute, told the Star its policy is not to comment on any dealings it has with CRA, although he said in its 40-year history it has previously been audited three times by the CRA and the U.S. government’s IRS. He said any charity should expect such audits periodically.

However, Veldhuis adamantly disagreed with ( CCPA executive director Bruce) Campbell’s suggestion that think-tanks all come from a perspective or core set of values, or even that the Fraser Institute should be described as a conservative organization. He said the institute’s work is “not value-based, it’s driven by data.”

“The role of a think-tank is to ask a question, examine the data and let the data tell you the answer. That’s what the role of a research organization is. That’s what we do. That’s not one-sided. I’ve no concerns about us being one-sided because that’s not research.”...

_______And, as for this little F-List Troop blog?....Why, it seems like just yesterday that we were noticing how those most excellent data analysts over at the Big Muddy building on Burrard Street were putting together Dora The Explorer maps to make the point that right-to-work states down south are are actually little libertarian islands of valhalla for all their workers who are working more and more and more for less and less and less because, well....Freedom!

"...I supported the unionization of BCTV’s newsroom after their “new” management laid off/fired more than 40 workers; I also became union vice-president; and, was union spokesman during CEP’s 33-day strike..."

But, as for reason number two?

Well that's the real kicker:

"...(I)n retirement, on this blog, I have also DARED to criticize the media; the decline in quality; the sagging ratings; and the do-more-with-less results of decisions/actions by the corporate bean counters now running the business..."

This is then backed by spokesmodels like, say, Mr. Fassbender, who are instructed to say anything to the proMedia they have instant access to because the wizards that run the war rooms know that the codswallop will gum up the works and the spokesmodels will never be called on it because the proMedia will always play nice, for all kinds of reasons ,including the fact that they don't want to be shut out of future spokesmodel appearances and interviews.

Now.

Of course, anybody who stops by a place like this already knows that this is the way things really work 'round here.

So, given that, why is what Mr. Smith wrote important?

Well...

Because it shows the proMedia how it could actually make the obfuscation and codswallop worthless if they would just call the perpetrators on it.

Every.

Single.

Time.

______There is one small thing I don't agree with in Mr. Smith's column...Specifically, he suggests that the teachers would do better if they took up similar spin strategies...I disagree entirely...While the teachers efforts may lack polish and media savvy and all that crap (which, of course, can raise the ire of the usual suspects) it, in large part, truly reflects what teachers really think and believe...And even if it is sometimes slightly misguided and messy, I'll take that over deliberate propaganda and obfuscatory bullshit every time...OK?And, just for the record, I think the kinds of rapid response efforts that Mr. Smith talks about happening to GStraight polls, likely happened over at Laila's place last weekend...

...Dubbed “quick wins” because of the suggestion that the Liberals could reap a political gain from a government apology to the Chinese community for historic wrongs, the scandal dominated the news in the weeks before the election call. It did not prove to be a decisive issue in the campaign itself....

{snip}

...The specific allegation, set out in the charges, is that the two accused and their company paid an employee, Sepideh Sarrafpour, to work on the byelection without disclosing the amount ($2,240) as a political contribution.

Not a decisive amount for a campaign where the Liberals spent almost $100,000 trying to win the byelection and still lost. But as required under the Election Act, the charges were approved by Chief Electoral Officer Keith Archer, the independent watchdog on the integrity of the electoral process...

..."Have [MLA] Harry Bloy meet with her and explain how doing anything would damage the Premier and the party. Have him say how he will try to find her work and get her back involved... If need be, offer x dollars per month to do non public work up to election [developing her database of potential supporters]."...

And who was the former staffer, now Whistleblower, that was supposed to receive this 'work' and those 'x dollars' per month, if the Email written by the good Mr. Bonney was acted upon, in the wake of explaining to her how 'doing anything would damage the Premier and the party'?

______It would appear that the good Mr. Palmer buried the lede even further in his latest column when he mentioned that, because of Quick Wins, the Premier of this province, for whom Mr. Bonney worked, IN HER ACTUAL OFFICE, at the time the scandal broke, was required to apologize twice...However, Mr. Palmer gave his readers no specifics regarding the details of said apologies...We can only assume that one of the apologies that Mr. Palmer was referring to went like....This.

It would appear that the ever vigilant Norm Farrell has noticed that a recent column by Vaughn Palmer in the VSun on 'healthcare' savings makes a point that is closer to the provincial government line than it it is to reality.

Is Canada’s oil sector harming the rest of the economy? According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the evidence points to yes.

In a new report, the bank has come out squarely in favour of the "Dutch Disease" theory — the notion that Canada's oil and gas boom has driven up the loonie to the point it's hurting other export-dependent parts of the economy.

The City of Burnaby has filed a civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court to keep Kinder Morgan out of the Burnaby Mountain conservation area.The move, made Monday, is the latest in the legal battle over the city-owned land, where Kinder Morgan has been cutting trees for survey work for a new pipeline route. The city is also asking the court for a temporary injunction to stop the company from cutting trees before the court decides on the matter."We have no other options. We tried to raise these issues at the NEB, we tried to deal with the company itself, and now we are in B.C. Supreme Court," said the city's lawyer, Gregory McDade. "It's fairly straight forward. Municipal bylaws are enforceable by court injunction."The bylaw McDade was referring to forbids anyone from cutting trees in a city park, something Kinder Morgan did last week during survey work. ...

The government of China has stepped into the B.C. teachers' strike and that is raising concern about a major source of lucrative international students for B.C. school boards.

Officials from the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver met recently with Education Ministry officials to express concerns about the teachers' strike, which has delayed the start of the school year by nearly two weeks, with no end in sight...

What's this one all about Alfie?

Well, kids from away pay big money to come to BC to go to our very fine public schools.

And, in addition to not getting to go to school during the strike, many of them are also forfeiting that big money that they laid out in advance.

Personally, I don't understand that last part (we have a sabbatical family visiting us who are in this bind)...I mean, are they trying to destroy the reputation of a program that is, unlike the private school subsidy debacle, actually really helping to support public education in this province?

_______The story quoted above is Tracy Sherlock, Chuck Chiang and Rob Shaw's in the VSun....It's good reportage.

"...I have no advice for anybody except to, you know, be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside, even in places you hate..."

Not much more to say to that.

Except to mention that I know a place where I can find the poetry inside just about everytime within Mr. Buckley's version of a traditional tune that Mumford and Son, and a movie by the Cohen Brothers, have lately made famous.

Buckley's version is somehow simultaneously unrecognizable and instantly captivating...

_____E. and I did this tune awhile back...In the much more traditional vein....